What does it mean that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not? What does it mean to follow Jesus into this world? What does it mean to be filled, led, empowered by the Spirit of Jesus? Hmmm ...

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Pastorates project

Here's an excerpt from a project I've been working on. I'm trying to write up an in-depth account of pastorates -- why they're important, what they are, how they fit within the Christian and the Lutheran tradition, and how we've implemented them at Central. Here's part of what I wrote yesterday:

One of the most drastic changes the church has experienced in the last century has to do with the status of clergy. A century ago, pastors were important people. They enjoyed prestige in the community and deference from nearly everyone, even other professionals. Even the United States tax codes recognize the status of clergy through special exemptions, deductions, and allowances. In implementing these special classifications for clergy (of all faiths, though by far the majority of people able to take advantage of these have been Christians), the government has affirmed that the church provides services that are critical to the general welfare of the United States and therefore, without discrimination or bias, the U.S. government wants to support the work done by clergy. Many of these special tax classifications are being eroded away today.

Partly because of increasing education among the general population and partly because of a decreasing respect for the church as a whole, pastors no longer enjoy as much public authority as they did in the past. While those of us who are ordained might grieve for these changes, we have to recognize that God is at work here. These changing perceptions are no surprise to him.

It is important for pastors to realize that Jesus had a great many things to say about power and how it is exercised in the gospel community. Rather than exercising power over one another, Jesus said, leaders in this community are to be servants. Rather than seeking our own advantage or control, leaders are to give away power.

This idea of giving away power is deeply personal for me. Before I went to seminary, I served in various non-ordained roles within the church for many years. I enjoyed not being a pastor, helping other lay people to recognize that they, too, could live lives wholly dedicated to following Jesus. Radical Christian lives were not just for pastors.

As I served in the church, I became increasingly frustrated by a variety of “glass ceilings.” Over and over again I encountered limits to what I could do in the church because I was not ordained. At a retreat in February, 1994, I vented my frustrations to Paul, a friend and pastor. I complained about how my Lutheran church loves to talk about the priesthood of all believers, but then we create systems where pastors have power and the rest of the church sits by, passive. I railed about how pastors function like a good old boys’ club, holding the authority to make decisions on behalf of the church, then making those decisions in ways that protect their own power base. Paul listened to my tirade attentively. When I was through, he quietly nodded. “I think everything you say is true. Pastors are often guilty of protecting their own power. We create systems that preserve our own authority in selfish ways that hurt the church. Do you know what will change the church, Jeff?” he asked.

I was still quite frustrated and I became a little sarcastic. “No, Paul, what’s going to change the church?”

“If good people who understand what you have been saying get ordained and then give away their power.”

It was like the Holy Spirit used Paul’s words to stick a pin in my ego. I could almost hear my indignant rage leaking out like helium out of a balloon. Within a week my wife and I had made plans to sell our house and I put in my application to seminary. Since that time, my heart has been bent on being a pastor who gives away power. I have returned again and again to Ephesians 4, where the apostle Paul describes how God gifted the church with pastors (and other leaders) in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So if pastors try to do the ministry ourselves, we are working against God’s plan for the church, working against scripture. The ministry -- the mission of the church -- is properly the work of God’s people, who are to be equipped and empowered by pastors and other leaders.

When I completed seminary and began serving two congregations in western North Dakota, I discovered (not for the first time) that it is not only pastors who resist the priesthood of all believers. Often members of congregations enjoy being armchair quarterbacks in the church, able to second-guess decisions without taking responsibility. Others take a perverse pride in having hired a pastor to do the work of the church on their behalf. Many who bang the drum loudest for what they think is traditional Lutheranism also carry the most resistance to Luther’s idea that every Christian is ordained a priest in their baptism, authorized and responsible to carry out the ministry of the church.

As I have pursued the vision of pastorates for the last seven years, I have constantly been challenged to give away power in big and small ways. One of the earliest lessons -- and one that is repeated most often -- is that if the gospel is going to create community, I have to give up the traditional pastor’s role of “answer man.” Today when I sit as a participant in the pastorate my wife and I attend, I limit myself to a couple comments, or perhaps questions, in the course of the Word-focused portion of our pastorate gathering. I find that this accomplishes several goals. First, other participants are forced to grapple with their own questions and answers rather than simply looking to the pastor for the correct answers. Over time this practice creates greater learning and develops the ability to read and interpret the Bible in those who participate. Second, the leaders of our pastorate are reinforced, encouraged, and empowered in their leadership as they learn to lead the discussion through what are sometimes difficult issues. Third, I tend to learn a great deal as I listen to the perspectives of my brothers and sisters in Christ!

In our church (meaning Central Lutheran), we have laid the groundwork for many years to empower pastorate leaders. The first steps of this empowerment included focusing on teaching the Bible and on helping people understand what it means to have a dynamic relationship with Jesus. At the same time we intentionally created group experiences and raised up leaders to oversee those short-term groups. We developed a strong Alpha ministry and trained a cohesive team of leaders who understood many different tasks -- set-up, clean-up, cooking, prayer, group leadership, administration, childcare, hospitality, and more -- as many different tasks that worked toward a common goal of evangelism and discipleship. Alpha also created a natural association in the minds of both leaders and participants between relational groups and spiritual growth. To put it another way, belonging and believing were tied together. This is a biblical idea that too often gets lost in our churches.